The rise of artificial intelligence could significantly reshape how Indians earn, save and invest, according to Saurabh Mukherjea, founder and chief investment officer of Marcellus Investment Managers. Speaking at Mint Extraclass on 10 September, Mukherjea, who is widely known for popularising the Coffee Can investing strategy, said many repetitive white-collar jobs could be automated within the next few years, pushing more professionals towards gig-based work and changing how they build wealth and plan for retirement.
He added that white-collar job creation has remained stagnant for the past three years, making it increasingly difficult for graduates to secure employment. “India produces around 80 lakh graduates annually, of whom an estimated 40 lakh are of decent quality. Till 2020, most of the good graduates were getting jobs,” Mukherjea said, citing available public data.
Why does Saurabh Mukherjea see a shift towards white-collar gig work?
Mukherjea said white-collar gig work could expand in the same way that blue-collar gig roles have grown through platforms such as Swiggy and .
“Every evening, you will see thousands of gigs being auctioned out on Upwork. This is an American company, but the gigs are global. Most of the people bidding for jobs on Upwork are Indians. Some of the Indians already have jobs but want to make some more money in the evening with a side hustle,” he said, indicating that a decade from now, most Indians could be earning a livelihood like this.
Mukherjea also said that white-collar gig work is not limited to people looking to make some extra money. Some workers laid off from big tech firms often move to less expensive cities such as Chandigarh, Dehradun, Coorg and Mysore, where they take up gig work to earn a livelihood.
White-collar gig work is short-term, project-based professional labour performed by skilled knowledge workers rather than full-time employees.
Why will personal finance become more important?
Mukherjea, who is also a renowned author, explained that a shift from salaried employment to gig work could fundamentally change how people save, invest and build retirement wealth.
He said that when an employee has a steady job, their employer acts like an “insurance programme”, meaning the company’s balance sheet provides a cushion against market fluctuations, including a recession. This helps employees maintain a more predictable income, except during layoffs.
However, income tends to become far less predictable in the “You will go through one or two years where you will make crazy amounts of money, and then you will go through one or two, maybe three or four years where you will make very little money. So you will go through feast and famine. Gig work may mean the steadiness of income goes away,” he said.
He added that the loss of a steady income could also affect a person’s ability to save in a disciplined manner. With AI automation taking over jobs in nearly every industry, Mukherjea advised employees to keep their cost of living low and build a substantial savings buffer for emergencies.
“Invest your money intelligently. Buy a large amount of health insurance for yourself, build a big pension corpus, as all of that will come into play. So, personal finance becomes much more important in the world of gig work than it is in the world of salaried work,” he explained.
How could gig work change where Indians live and work?
The speaker said the way Indians work and live could change significantly as gig work expands. He expects more people to move to tier-two and tier-three cities, while fewer workers commute to offices.
He said many of these workers could work from home, taking on projects for employers or clients based anywhere in the world. “Many of these Indians will say, let’s get paid in dollars,” he said, adding that those working for American or European companies may receive payments in offshore in dollars.